Rory McIlroy returns to Royal Birkdale chasing a second 2026 major, praising the revamped links while admitting St Andrews still owns his heart above all again.
Rory McIlroy is back at Royal Birkdale with another chance to turn a historic season into something even bigger.
The Northern Irish star will make his 17th appearance in The Open as the championship returns to Southport, where McIlroy tied for fourth in 2017 while Jordan Spieth survived one of the wildest Sundays in major championship history.
This time, McIlroy arrives with far more than nostalgia on his mind.
After winning the Masters in April and completing the career Grand Slam, the 36-year-old can capture a second major of 2026 and add another Claret Jug to the one he claimed at Royal Liverpool in 2014.
Royal Birkdale won’t look exactly the way it did nine years ago.
Every hole has been touched during a two-stage renovation led by Mackenzie & Ebert. The biggest change is a new par-3 15th, while the par-4 fifth has also been reshaped.
Still, McIlroy believes the course has kept the quality players appreciate most: it doesn’t manufacture chaos just for the sake of it.
“One of the common things you hear about Birkdale is it’s very fair for a links golf course,” McIlroy said.
Unlike some links venues, where awkward bounces and blind targets can make players feel as though they’re negotiating with the wind, Birkdale generally shows golfers what’s ahead.
McIlroy noted that the fairways aren’t excessively uneven and that well-struck tee shots often remain where they land.
That doesn’t make the course easy. Birkdale has produced a savage list of champions, including Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, Johnny Miller and Peter Thomson.
The venue is hosting The Open for the 11th time, more than any course outside St Andrews since it first welcomed the championship in 1954.
McIlroy called Birkdale one of the players’ favorite stops on the Open rota, saying it would likely rank near the top in any poll of the field.
Near the top, however, isn’t No. 1.
Asked to name his favorite Open venue, McIlroy didn’t hesitate.
“St Andrews,” he said. “The Open at St Andrews just feels different.”
McIlroy compared the Old Course’s atmosphere to the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, where the championship seems bigger simply because of the stage.
He grew up watching Tiger Woods win twice at St Andrews and later finished third there in 2022.
The Open returns to the Old Course next year, but McIlroy has immediate business at Birkdale.
He already owns golf’s Grand Slam. Now he has a chance to make 2026 the year he stopped chasing history and started piling more of it onto the record.
